MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th August, 2019) Russia is ready to study options of cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in the electric energy industry if Bishkek meets its obligations under the frozen project of building the Verkhne-Narynsky cascade of hydroelectric power stations and compensates costs paid by Russian hydroelectricity company RusHydro under the project, First Deputy Chief of the Russian Government Staff, Sergei Prikhodko, said on Friday.
Later in the day, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will attend a session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, bringing together EAEU heads of government, in Kyrgyzstan's Cholpon Ata.
"Russia would be ready to study options of cooperation in the area of electric energy, including the building of new [power] generating objects in Kyrgyzstan, if Kyrgyzstan fully implemented its obligations under the intergovernmental agreement on building and using the Verkhne-Narynsky cascade of hydroelectric power stations; compensated costs to RusHydro; and organized cooperation on new terms," Prikhodko told reporters.
The official added that in 2018, Kyrgyzstan asked Russia to consider the possibility of resuming cooperation on the project.
Moscow and Bishkek agreed to build a cascade of power plants at Naryn River in the Central Asian country in 2012. The project envisaged building four hydroelectric power stations and the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant. The operator of the project was owned by both Kyrgyzstan and Russia, with the latter being represented by RusHydro.
However, in 2016, the Kyrgyz parliament unilaterally withdrew from the deal. RusHydro had invested $37 million in the project by that time.
In 2018, Russia filed an international arbitration suit against Kyrgyzstan, demanding that the country compensate investment under the energy project to RusHyrdro.
Prikhodko also told reporters on Friday that in June, Moscow and Bishkek held bilateral expert consultations, involving Russian companies, during which the potential construction of the Verkhne-Narynsky cascade of hydroelectric power stations and the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant was discussed.
Russian energy holding company Inter RAO was ready to consider the possibility of resuming work on the Kambarata-1 project in case its economic efficiency was ensured, the official added.
